Targets and quotas are absolutely and inherently artificial. But then, much of management spend their time sitting around thinking up new targets and new ways to "motivate" workers instead of engaging in productive activity themselves. So workers have to endure the stupid "motivational" seminars in businesses which are total waste of time and money. Psychologists are even paid to give ridiculous seminars where everybody becomes one or two letters denoting his/her "personality type." What does this have to do with building a saleable product? Such an activity is a true symptom of a stagnant business. It's no wonder that Kodak and Ford today in the USA are far better known for their management schools than for their competitive products. If the product were any good, everyone would be busy making it or selling it, and have no time for "motivational" seminars. Nothing so motivates a worker like knowing he is part of a team engaged in action that will ultimately enrich him.

M. Hoeber, Miami, Florida USA

We had a xmas sales target and 90% of the 1300 sales force didn't even get 10% of target. Each week up to xmas we were sent updates as to how everyone was doing- I laughed everytime I saw the report. Never did understand what it was I was supposed to be targeting and what the key performance Indicators (KPI's in about the eighth column of some spreadsheet) actually were.
Still it gave the managers something to punch into their laptops everyday.
I think only 1/2% of the sales force achieved target-well they were on target until in embarassment they stopped reporting the weekly fgures.

peter, reading, berks

Working in IT support, I was amazed when my line manager instructed our team to "Attend 10% fewer calls in the next year" as we were doing to much work and making the other teams look bad.

Alex McGregor, Plymouth, UK

Actually Peter of Cambridge is right!

What the writer and seemingly others here are not aware of is that this targets trick is well know rule of thumb oF the Arthur Daley business school of British industry.

It comes from a long discredited book which alas i forget the name of. The idea is sold like this.

How do you make sure a system is working at its most efficient

Answer you raise the bar (Targets till the system fails then you ease of till the faults stop or become acceptable.) This way you now the system is working at optimal, never mind all those lying cheating staff.

The smart amongst you will instantly notice this is the management style that resulted in the collapse of the British car industry.

Japanese sold working cars to customers

and did not use customers to quailty check the production line output.

JimJim , Gt Manchester,

The disastrous effects of this target setting culture on real performance particularly in the public services is a national scandal. Unfortunately it is completely insidious and I cannot see how it can be got rid of easily, for if you want to get promotion or even protect your job you have to agree enthusiastically that the emperor is indeed wearing a fine set of new clothes and refrain from mentioning that he has been charging about starkers for some years now. I suspect this may also be behind the increase in mental health problems.
People are going bonkers with frustration beacuse they are being bullied into chasing meaningless targets rather than simply doing their job and going home on time to have a life outside of work.

sheila, LEICESTER,

My former US head of department always used to say never meet a deadline, otherwise they will make it shorter the next time. Sensible advice, and an illustration of the law of unintended consequences.

Peter, Cambridge,

Thank you for this article, it certainly chimes with me.Of the more ludicrous targets our project is under pressure to meet is the demand for more complaints. Only snag is, our service users are quite happy, largely becuase we respond to their problem areas on an ongoing basis so that nothing gets to the "official complaint" stage. Not good enough, obviously.

Clare Butler, Totnes, UK

Good article, and one that strikes a painful chord.

Some years ago I worked as a researcher in a fast-moving R&D department where it was hard to predict progress a month ahead, let along produce SMART objectives for the coming year. What did they expect? "In May I will make a breakthrough in project X, in July we will find a cure for cancer, etc.". Sorry, R&D is inherently risky and unpredictable and doesn't lend itself to simplistic SMART objectives.

No-one I worked with ever found SMART objectives of any real benefit; to most people it was a useless and time-consuming chore. It seemed to be little more than a scheme to keep the HR and management bureaucrats happy and employed.

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

Fellow worker submits weekly productivity reports where the numbers are deliberately skewed to make it seem as though all is spot on. I, produce weekly reports that are not skewed and show things as they really are.

Result, fellow worker is lauded as a great manager, really doing a great job. I, am hounded by management to make more effort to get my team to produce and be more efficient.

Management doesn't seem to notice that although my productivity may be less, I am using far less resources, and they are in line with productivity (or lack). The problem is lack of suitably skilled manpower (oops, person power).

At the end of it all, my fellow worker has used all of their budgets and has not reached the "goal" set by management, even though they are the shining star. I, however, reach my "goal", on budget, but of course am late in achieving the desired results.

Guess who gets the back patting and raise?

Malcolm Cottrell, Edmonton, Canada

How about making our hospitals as good as French ones? It's a simple target, and obviously possible. Ah! I hear you say, but how do you measure it? Hmmm!

Charles Bockett-Pugh, Sandhurst,

There's a saying in the NHS 'Hit the Target and Miss the Point!'

ian, reading, england

' the Liberal Democrats embarrassed Alex Salmond, the First Minister, by producing a letter written by a hospital consultant to a patient telling her he had been instructed by management to remove her from his waiting list in order to meet targets.

I had exactly this experience. My appointment at an allergy clinic in Southampton Hospital was cancelled. When I rang up to enquire why, the receptionist informed me that it was standard practice to book patients in with unrealistic appointments to hit targets, and then cancel them because they could not be met. I couldn't believe she actually told me this - truly shocking!

On a slightly different tack, my daughter's appointment with the Orthodontic Dept at Salisbury District Hospital has now been cancelled three times, twice with one days notice!!!! The first cancelled appointment was way back in September.

Clair, Tidworth, Wilts

"Every patient in the country will wait only 18 weeks between seeking a GP and referral to a consultant. No one will wait more than four hours in A&E."

In the old East Germany, and in the Soviet Union, if there was no queue out side a shop, it was because the shop was empty, NOT because every one had everything they needed.

Ragnar Vagmornasson, Brandenburg, Preussen/Germany

A good target for MPs would be to aim towards having the population think they are a) honest and b) worth what they are paid. But as Melanie says, some targets are impossible.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

Melanie Reid appears to have missed out the bit about shifting the goal posts and digging up the pitch.

Norman, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

It's a basic rule that what you measure is what you get. All other aspects of the work will deteriorate in compensation. So, 175 lorries will leave the depot, but more of them will have the wrong loads, be unsafe, or be used inefficiently.

P.S. Melanie Reid means 'evangelistic', not 'evangelical'.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Chairmen, chief executives, directors, especially finance directors, human resource managers and other managers have, gradually, become obsessed with the desire, the almost messianic urge, to identify and set targets based on some misguided premise that the collection of data and the production of statistics in order to set targets is a valuable tool that will, somehow, improve productivity and competitiveness; and, for demanding more and more sets of figures to peruse at board or departmental meetings. To do what, peruse the information and set more targets? Procrastination is the mother of decline and the weight of producing and reporting statistics and targets is burying organizations in paperwork and bureaucracy such that progress and even decision-making is being stunted by guidelines and goal-setting. Worse, concentrating so much time and effort on producing statistics and setting targets so often means that people do not spend enough time doing their actual job.

Kenneth Armitage, Suffolk, England